We arrived in Alice Springs at 9:00 am. We looked for our bags but they had accidently been marked to go to Adelaide... soon found! Off to our economy accomodation at the Junp Inn Alice Hostel. Very basic ($60) but great staff, very friendly and helpful! Room basic, no pics on the walls or shampoos, great bed, good AC, great shower, no bugs, clean.... what more do we need? They also have a large kitchen and laundry for guests, pool (too many leaves for me).
Have we mention the time zones here? There is the east coast time zone and the West...

History: Darwin is the largest city in the thinly populated Northern Territory, or the Top End. Named after Charles Darwin the famed naturalist. It is here we hope to see the “jumping crocs”
Saw 3 huge male Crocs, Walabies and Black kites, fun and exciting day. Leaving Australia on our way to Komodo Indonesia and the famous Komodo dragons.

Darwin is the largest city in the northern province of Australia at 150,000 people. The nearest other city is Adelaide. Adelaide is as far as New York is to San Francisco, just to give you the size of Australia. Its pretty empty too, although on the ship we have not experienced the emptiness as we have visited the large coastal cities. In Cairns, 18 people took the trip overland to Alice Springs and Ayer’s Rock, meeting up with us in Darwin. They enjoyed it, but said things are hot, dry and basic in the outback.
Darwin is spread out across...

We were picked up at our hotel at 8:15 in the morning. We had to wait for the second bus because there were so many people. There were 285 passengers on the train and 52 staff members. There were two engines and the engineers rotated every eight hours.
The train was very long, over 40 cars. There were four groupings so to speak. So there would be a dining car and a bar car and behind those four or five passenger cars, or carriages as they are called here. There were two chefs to take care of the four diner cars. Of course we were at the...

We arrived in Darwin about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We had a four hour 30 minute flight from Sydney. Gary compared it to flying from Miami to Minneapolis in time and distance. The airport was small and very modern. We caught the shuttle bus to our hotel the oaks Elon. It is really an apartment we have one bedroom, bathroom, living room and full kitchen...although the many appliances and small. And a lovely balcony with table and chairs that overlooks the harbor.
We are so tired of eating out and the costs of meals here in Australia. A...

We were picked up by our guide and driver Joey at 6:15 am. I was not sure this tour was really going to work, because my email contact was out of the country January. And then she only had her daughter's email to contact me. Joey showed up and there were 18 of us on the bus for the all day tour to see the jumping crocodiles and Litchfield national Park.
First we went to the Adelaide river. We went on a very basic boat with grill work on the sides. We went to see the Chip and crocodiles are the Adelaide river. I wondered about the grill...

Day 10 Wednesday 17th Alice Springs to Uluru ("Ayers Rock" now know as "Uluru")
We took a 220+ K bus ride to Uluru stopping, once for a rest stop and to see camels, and at a cattle station for lunch and a demonstration of how to make paper out of native grass. The cattle station encompass 1,020,000 acres and can support 4000 cattle. When it was homesteaded, it was 160 from the closest store on a rutted, dirt road. As Uluru became a tourist attraction, the road was paved from Alice Springs to Uluru. We stopped at our hotel in Ulurr for a...

We are enjoying Exploration and Discovery that OATS provides on their tours. Visiting Alice Springs was just that. Alice Springs is in the middle of Australia and far from anywhere - 800-1000 miles in any direction and there are few people in between , but there are people and they need support, and most of it comes from Alice Springs. We visited some of the groups giving the support - The Royal Flying Doctors Service that visit the sick in the outback, flying into isolated cattle stations and transporting sick to hospitals that are 800 to...

Darwin is the top of down under. The first thing that strikes you when stepping ashore is the heat and humidity. A temperature of 92 degrees plus 90 percent humidity. The second thing was the tall apartments and government offices. Despite the heat we had a twenty minute walk in to the downtown area and headed to the town hall and library to get Wi-Fi. The Governor General had just arrived and it was a little busy so we headed over to catch a bus up to the The Northern Territories Museum which has a large Aboriginal art collection and...

Good flight yesterday. Got a bit stressed though. We all got the the airport and I was the first to check in. The employee says my flight was cancelled! I was in shock! The manager had to call the office and get it straightened out. After about 10 minutes, I was handed my boarding pass... with exit row! Enjoyed a beer with Portia before our flight and headed off.

Today we met some of the new folk joining us to Sydney. More girls, just me and janpaul for guys. Scheduled a bungee swing for the early afternoon. Got picked up about 11am and headed up to the mountains. Signed my life away and got the harness and strapped in. Guy gave me a briefing... I'll get pulled backwards to 45m high. Watch for the red light to change green, then pull the release cord on my own when I'm ready, and ill swing. So I'm up at the top... enjoying the view, I get the green light, I pull the release... the guy didn't tell me...

6km hike today. Luckily it was overcast and a bit cool. Oh my... so far my favorite hike. Beautiful views! I walked with Astrid, Sophie, and Ashley. It was such a great walk with them... good conversation and good laughs all around. We didn't walk too fast either which was a nice change of pace.
After we watched a movie on the bus since it was another 5hrs back to Alice Springs. The movie - Australia. It actually wasn't that bad. In fact, I kinda wanna learn how Australia entered World War 2. After movie, Ron went to put music on, and...